Nobody here is challenging your points about Nintendo being wealthy and advantaged, but you need to remember that even the Big N had to start somewhere. There was a time during the Atari era, when the market became so saturated with shovelware --that the entire industry came crashing down. Nintendo was one of the few companies to survive, and it wasn't because the were wealthy or advantaged at that time --it was because they never stopped investing in quality. Experts and analyists were saying it was Game Over. But when the NES launched, Nintendo enforced extremely high quality standards on their licensees to help repair the damage. Anyone remember this?

Nintendo saved the whole industry --and they did by holding themselves and their business partners to a higher standard. The resulting renaissance not only gave birth to Super Mario, Zelda, and Metroid --but also Megaman and Castlevania itself... Money isn't everything --enforcing quality mitigates risk --and that's a lesson both Capcom and Konami need to study.

Very good points right there. What I find with the industry now-a-days is that not many are willing to experiment and try to introduce something new. Back in the day, there were so many remember-able faces in gaming, mostly because its never been done before. Now more than half of the time we see a generic game title or we see the old faces coming in to pick up with their usual gameplay. Granted, some of those games now have really good gameplay and I can't complain about the old games coming back, but I'm still waiting for something more defining to show up.

I want to see characters that really stick out and are memorable, gameplay that just works (even through glitches and slight bugs), something that can stand alongside the classics. Perhaps that's just me being bias towards the olden era, but back then I could see the effort they had put into the games to make them as enjoyable as possible. Today, half the time it feels like they're only after the money. And it's not hard to do so when they can just make a generic FPS character and use the unreal engine or something along that line. Visuals also seemed to be the only thing games have cared about over the past couple of years, with only a few titles that still made the gameplay fun.

I don't know how to express this properly, and I might be coming off as ignorant towards the other game genres like the FPS, sports, or those motion control games (which some of them are good, just most are not my cup of tea). I dunno, there are just less and less game companies willing to challenge the classics as being the most respected in gaming. Though that may be because gaming has become so divided with the different genres and the occasional elitists here and there.

The Nintendo we know today hardly has anything to do with the original company, but it's cool anyway. It's also amusing that it would take roughly ONE HUNDRED YEARS for the company to really take off. I mean, they probably did alright before (otherwise they wouldn't have been around for so long) but with the release of the NES, Nintendo suddenly became known to EVERYONE. Even my grandma who's 94 years old knows what it is, and she's never played a video game in her life.

You people keep forgetting how much money Nintendo has, and that they can pretty much allot as much as they need to their projects.

^^Also i see ppl is also forgetting that nintendo 2D mario leader of the games with million of copies sold is a FAMILY game, lot of fun come son check this, come bro, hey cusin look that koopa, dad see how i kick the turtle....obviously its the leader becuase the market it aims lets be rational its like comparing "Kung Fu Panda" against "300" for me 300 is lot better but in marketing Kung Fu Panda will be much more profitable is soemthing everybody normally enjoys.

im a big supporter of 2D Castlevanias but sadly as someone already said and i cant quote it cuz im on my phone and its a pain to look for the post, there are looooot of hardcore fans out there but unless a new game arise and make sound many wont find this awwesome forum , i ut myself as example never ever knew this existed i grew up playing Castlevania in fact beside mario and zelda i think Castlevania (Akumajo Dracula) was the third game i played as a kid in my NES brother how i got here? i was amuzed for the new CV LOS i cant believe my beloved series was having a big game even if it was a reeboot, played liked it a lot even when its an alternate reality of the original, what happened? i saw the reception was good and started looking for news about other CV games on production and BAM!!!!! find the CV paradise here, and i think you are doing great with OA and i will support you guys in anything as long as severals boardies have told, trying not to attack Konami or LOS cuz that will take us nowhere and the company ignoring us, lets face it right now LOS have happy konami thats why the sequel is in work, a different proffesional approach will benefit us more.

Perhaps setting up a place specifically where fans can show how much they love the things that OA is fighting for would be a more effective approach, currently the operation does seem focused a lot on highlighting what has been done wrong instead of what has been done right.Konami is probably more likely to be receptive to positive feedback than criticism (even if some of it could be considered constructive criticism)

ROFL this post put a smile on my face for about an hour!! I know you're joking but having a family friendly CV will be worser than LOS or even PoR.

I think that CV won't enter in that category never that's why it's not fair to match it with those, cuz the plot and gothic themes on the game it has a very specific market and it mainly survives thanks to the fanbase like Megaman. Konami has 2 options please the fan base and keep it small or try to attract new fans which I think they are aiming with LoS.

Perhaps setting up a place specifically where fans can show how much they love the things that OA is fighting for would be a more effective approach, currently the operation does seem focused a lot on highlighting what has been done wrong instead of what has been done right.Konami is probably more likely to be receptive to positive feedback than criticism (even if some of it could be considered constructive criticism)

The question is, how do you handle positive feedback when they've been totally pulling bullshit lately? It's kinda like sweet talkin someone who burned your house down and finding good within the bad things they've done. It's like, "Paul W. S Anderson, your Resident Evil movies are crap, but, I have to applaud your.... enthusiasm.". LOL!

I bring up this question because, so many times, people get mixed signals. Even if they are trying to be the most kind when dealing with someone, sometimes what they are trying to get across is read the wrong way. And if it feels MORE like praise(and ego stroking), Konami might just see NOTHING wrong with what they are doing and think that they are actually getting commended for everything wrong they are doing. Hence, will find no reason to change what they are doing and keep on heading their merry way down whatever way they plan to.

If you CAN get the message across and get their attention using honey, then by all means, do it. The thing is, if you can also get your message across, break through that barrier and if it's by ranting, what ever works. Of course, I agree, if the terms are more open than the specifics addressed in OA, it might be a little better for everyone, but there should really be an open channel for different fans to voice their opinions regarding what they feel is going wrong and right in the CV series to Konami.

everyone needs to rally under one banner. it wouldn't make sense for people within the same movement to have conflicting opinions, and nobody will listen to any of you. that being said, people don't think exactly the same way about every specific little detail in castlevania, but as long as there is agreement about more general key points, then the movement is consistent.

maybe O:A succeeds in this; maybe it doesn't. perhaps the mere fact that this isn't entirely clear is an issue that people will want to think about addressing. granted, i haven't spent too much time checking out what O:A is really about.

anyway, for the most part, i think that 1) if you agree with O:A's mission, then you should individually voice your support so that it doesn't seem like one person is leading this whole thing, injecting his own personal opinion into the whole group. whatever is really going on is beside the point; this is the impression i get. 2) if you don't agree with the mission, then stay away from O:A. it's your privilege to offer helpful/unhelpful advice, but i suspect that unsolicited advice is going to be largely useless if it's unnecessarily harsh and negative. for those people criticizing O:A for its lack of tact, you would do well to set an example that O:A can follow. 3) in acknowledging the divide, O:A should be careful not to give the impression that they represent all fans. not saying you do or you don't, but always keep that in mind.

I kinda have the hidden sense that Konami DOESN'T think OA is representing all fans. If they were the type to jump to that conclusion, they'd be awefully stupid, wouldn't they. Just because there are a few openly vocal and opinionated CV fans doesn't mean all of the fans feel the same way.

Though I agree, if we were to address this in a civil way, we might want to start a committee where we poll and discuss what exactly we want from this.